Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme
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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik
MO 14: Poster 2: Biomolecules, Electronic Spectroscopy, Experimental Techniques, Quantum Chemistry, Various Topics
MO 14.28: Poster
Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 16:30–19:00, Poster.IV
Wigner Function Reconstruction in the Talbot Regime — •Carola Szewc1, Sun Kyung Lee2, Myungshik Kim2, and Hendrik Ulbricht1 — 1University of Southampton, Highfield, SO17 1BJ Southampton, UK — 2QOLS, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, UK
We theoretically investigate the possibility of Wigner function reconstruction of the motional quantum state of heavy molecules in the near-field Talbot-Lau regime. In general, the reconstruction of the Wigner distribution function is important to test quantum states on their properties such as entanglement, superposition and coherence. The wave nature of molecules has been demonstrated by interferometry. We aim to make the next step to extract sufficient information about the motional quantum state to evidently show a superposition signature of the associated Wigner function. We therefore report on the reconstruction of this quasi-probability function under consideration of experimental conditions, such as a finite number of slits, the limited collimation of the particle beam and the particle-grating van der Waals interaction. We still find sufficient information to reconstruct a Wigner function with a meaningful structure and negative values.